Jimmy Kimmel received a Creative Arts Emmy Award for “Outstanding Variety Special (Live)” this evening for hosting the Oscars in 2023. He’s hosted a total of four times, could the shiny new statuette convince him to host a fifth?
“No, the die has been cast,” said Kimmel with a laugh.
The late-night host declined to repeat the gig at the next Academy Awards due to the time commitment preparing for Hollywood’s biggest night. Neither Kimmel nor comedian John Mulaney accepted an offer to host for 2025 with no one else confirmed as of now.
Though he did not address whether hosting duties were completely off the table indefinitely, he has previously said if he returned for next year’s celebration it would’ve been three back-to-back years which was too overwhelming for his schedule both professionally and personally.
In the meantime, Kimmel remains focused on working on his eponymous late-night show ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! as the industry landscape is rapidly changing. On Friday, it was announced that NBC’s The Tonight Show will no longer have original episodes airing 5 nights a week. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS’ Late Show With Stephen Colbert and NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers already scaled back to four nights of originals a week starting this season.
“As a group, we have a text chain of all the late-night hosts and we sent all of our congratulations to Jimmy Fallon for getting Friday off,” Kimmel shared backstage. “There is no future for late-night,” he added as the room erupted with laughter.